Current Legislative Priorities
2018 Legislative Priorities
AB 1037: Service-Incentive Grants for Undocumented Students
Author: Assemblymember Limon
Status: Held in Senate Appropriations Committee – Suspense File
Campaign Position: Support
Provides undocumented students with an opportunity to both develop their resume and skillsets, while also helping offset their ineligibility for any federal financial aid by establishing the Cal Grant B Service Incentive Grant, which would offer $1,000 per quarter or $1,500 per semester to participants that complete 300 eligible volunteer or community service hours while meeting academic requirements.
AB 1805: Placement Policies Transparency Act
Author: Assemblymember Irwin
Status: Governor’s Desk
Campaign Position: Support
Provides students with easily understandable information about community college placement policies and their rights to transfer-level courses pursuant to AB 705 (Irwin, 2017). Also requires colleges to report the percentage of students placed into transfer-level courses, disaggregated by race and ethnicity.
AB 1895: Income-Based Repayment for DREAM Loans
Author: Assemblymember Calderon
Status: Governor’s Desk
Campaign Position: Support
Helps address the financial needs of undocumented students by allowing DREAM Loan recipients to repay their loans based on actual income and providing students the security of loan deferment if they are unable to secure work in the United States.
Download the sample support letter
AB 1935: Supervised Tutoring Apportionment
Author: Assemblymember Irwin
Status: Held in Senate Appropriations Committee – Suspense File
Campaign Position: Support
Supports new approaches to placement and remediation (as required by AB 705, 2017) and Guided Pathways implementation at California Community Colleges by increasing access to supervised tutoring services for students taking transfer-level courses.
Download the sample support letter
AB 2248: Supporting On-Time Student Completion
Author: Assemblymember McCarty
Status: Governor’s Desk
Campaign Position: Support
Supports more informed decision-making by students by ensuring all Cal Grant recipients understand the unit load necessary to graduate in four years.
AB 2477: Coordinated Campus Support for Undocumented Students
Author: Assemblymember Rubio
Status: Governor’s Desk
Campaign Position: Support
Requires California public high schools, colleges, and universities to designate a Dreamer Resource Liaison to help undocumented and AB 540 students access supports and resources available to help them pursue education.
AB 3153: Student Financial Aid: Cal Grants: Summer Term Students
Author: Assemblymember Levine
Status: Held in Senate Appropriations Committee – Suspense File
Campaign Position: Support
Expands the total period of eligibility for a student to receive Cal Grant A or B awards to two summer term sessions of up to nine units each summer in order to increase likelihood of timely completion of a baccalaureate degree program.
SB 539: College Access Tax Credit
Author: Senators De León and Portantino
Status: Governor’s Desk
Campaign Position: Support
Garners additional resources to support the Cal Grant Part B Access Award and help low-income students cover increasing non-tuition costs to attend college by increasing the amount provided to taxpayers under the College Access Tax Credit Fund from 50 to 70 percent of their contributions to the College Access Tax Credit Fund.
SB 1471: Cal Grant Program: Competitive Cal Grant A and B awards
Author: Senator Hernandez
Status: Held in Senate Appropriations Committee Suspense File
Campaign Position: Support
Increases the number of competitive Cal Grant awards that may be granted in an academic year from 25,750 to 30,000 in order to provide financial assistance to a greater number of underserved students.
SR 84: Relative to California Dream Act of 2011
Author: Senator de León
Status: Signed by the Governor
Campaign Position: Support
Encourages California residents eligible for in-state tuition and financial aid under the California Dream Act of 2011 to fill out the California Dream Act Application and continue the process of applying for college, to realize their full potential and continue to make significant contributions to our state and nation.
Previously Sponsored and Supported
2017 Legislation
AB 705: Ensuring Assessment Equity at Community Colleges
Author: Assembly Member Irwin
Status: Signed by Governor
Campaign Position: Sponsor
Placement is destiny. A single test should not determine a student’s destiny. Yet, each year over 75% of students learn that they have assessed as not college ready and must enroll in at least one remedial course. Among community college students placed into remediation, only 4 in 10 will go on to complete a degree, certificate, or transfer in six years compared to 70% success rates for students allowed to enroll directly into college level courses.
AB 705 will help more students have access to college-level courses when they first enter a community college and ensure they succeed in completing a degree, certificate or transfer. Specifically, this bill requires colleges to use high school performance in the placement of students into math and English courses, in order to maximize the probability that the student will enter and complete transfer-level coursework in English and mathematics within a one-year timeframe.
AB 847: Academic senates: membership
Author: Assemblymember Bocanegra
Status: Held by Author in Senate Education Committee
Campaign Position: Sponsor
Diverse faculty and leadership at California’s public colleges and universities is critical to understanding and therefore meeting the needs of our increasingly diverse student body. Having a clear picture of the diversity in leadership, or lack thereof, across our systems is the first step in ensuring that leadership is reflective and responsive to the students it serves. Although data on the diversity of faculty and college presidents is readily available, little information is available on the diversity of members of faculty academic senates who have substantial influence over curriculum development, admission policies, state policy implementation and faculty hiring.
AB 847 will help provide a more complete picture of leadership diversity at colleges and universities by ensuring access to information on the representation of academic senates.
SB 539: The Community College Student Achievement Program
Author: Senators de León and Portantino
Status: Included in 2017-18 State Budget
Campaign Position: Support
Community colleges are the gateway to opportunity for the majority of students across the state and a critical piece in the state’s ability to meet its projected workforce gap. Yet, most community colleges aren’t designed for students and as a result, less than half will complete a degree or transfer within six years. SB 539 removes barriers to student success by creating clearer, more structured pathways known as “guided pathways.” The guided pathways model is a comprehensive redesign of the way community colleges serve students, from initial contact to completion, that when done well, can dramatically improve student outcomes.
SB 539 also recognizes the importance of financial aid to a student’s ability to stay on track and take the necessary units to complete a degree, certificate or transfer and establishes the Community College Completion Incentive Grant. This grant will provide an additional $4,000 in financial aid to community colleges students receiving the existing Full-Time Student Success Grant, if they complete 15 units.
AB 204: Community colleges: waiver of enrollment fees
Author: Assembly Member Medina
Status: Held in Senate Appropriations
Campaign Position: Support
AB 204 improves the appeals process for California Community College students who lose their Board of Governors (BOG) Fee Waiver under new academic qualification standards.
AB 394: California State University: assessment and course placement of admitted students
Author: Assembly Member Medina
Status: Included in 2017-18 State Budget
Campaign Position: Support
AB 394 will help more students successfully complete and reduce time-to-degree by requiring the California State University to implement additional measures for the assessment and course placement of students.
